Is There More Heat Left in Freeport-McMoRan’s Rally? The real estate sector is the largest metal end consumer in China (FXI). China’s real estate investment grew 9.7% YoY (year-over-year) in the first ten months of 2018.

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), the leading US-based copper miner, has seen a significant upside after the stock fell to its 52-week low after its third-quarter earnings were released. Although Freeport-McMoRan managed to beat its earnings estimates in the third quarter for the top line and bottom line, investors gave a thumbs down to its earnings.

BHP (BHP.AX) on Monday said it had signed an agreement with Australia's tax authorities to settle a long-running dispute over the global miner's operations in Singapore. The settlement removes a thorn from the side of BHP which alongside fellow miner Rio Tinto (RIO.L) (RIO.AX) was accused of not paying its fair share of tax as governments cracked down on multinationals in the wake of the global financial crisis. Tax authorities had been in dispute with both firms over the amount of Australian tax payable from sales of Australian commodities to their Singapore marketing businesses.

has settled a long-running tax dispute with the Australian government over sales of raw materials funnelled through an offshore marketing hub. There was no admission of tax avoidance by BHP, which said it had already paid $240m. For years, BHP has sold commodities its produces in Australia such as steelmaking ingredient iron ore to a Singapore marketing arm.

The Anglo-Australian company said the train — comprising four locomotives and 268 wagons loaded with iron ore — had stopped on its journey to Port Hedland after the braking system control cable became disconnected. “Our initial findings show that the emergency air brake for the entire train was not engaged as required by the relevant operating procedure. In addition, the electric braking system that initially stopped the train, automatically released after one hour while the driver was still outside,” he said in statement.

HSBC and ING handled a letter of credit backing the shipment for US food group Cargill relying on blockchain technology developed by software company R3. Blockchain promises to save time and money for the shipping industry, which still relies heavily on paper documents such as bills of lading, cargo insurance and invoices, as well as letters of credit. Alisa DiCaprio, head of global trade strategy and research at R3, says the sheer extent of paperwork involved in a typical shipping transaction frequently produces some kind of query or discrepancy.

Britain's top stock index fell on Wednesday as mining shares and oil majors sold off amid growing anxiety that global growth was slowing, though a late rally in gambling stocks offset some of the slide. The FTSE 100 (.FTSE) ended 0.3 percent lower after a choppy day, with investors navigating a commodities selloff and nerves over Brexit as Prime Minister May tried to persuade her cabinet to back her draft EU divorce plan. "Markets are struggling to discount two binary options: a Brexit which is relatively soft and pushed down the road, or a dramatic no-deal result," said Edward Park, investment director at Brooks Macdonald.

As we saw in the previous part of this series, iron ore prices have stood their ground despite growing headwinds for China (FXI). As we discussed in the previous part, one of the factors driving iron ore’s resilience is the stocking up by mills ahead of winter production curbs. As restocking completes and winter cuts kick in, the demand for iron ore from China could take a hit.

Chinese authorities imposed curbs on steel production last year ahead of winter months to reduce pollution. Steel mills are therefore in restocking mode to advance steel production before the curbs kick in. China’s iron ore import data for September also underscored this fact.

LONDON (Reuters) - British blue chips outperformed their European peers on Monday as fears about the terms of Brexit sank the pound, giving an accounting boost to stocks with foreign revenues in dollars. ...

Most big companies operating in sectors at high risk of labour abuses are failing to meet human rights standards set by the United Nations, according to an analysis of 100 major companies published on Monday. From tackling child labour to ensuring equal treatment for women, U.N. principles require all businesses prove they are committed to human rights and treat workers fairly. It was followed by miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, while two Chinese companies - liquor maker Kweichow Moutai and fast fashion brand Heilan Home - were ranked last.

Imperial Chief Executive Officer Rich Kruger puts the rationale for the C$2.6 billion ($2 billion) Aspen project in northern Alberta down to building when others aren’t to save money. The decision comes in stark contrast to moves by Royal Dutch Shell Plc. and ConocoPhillips to sell oil-sands assets, and by locals like Cenovus Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. that are curtailing production to weather rock-bottom prices. Imperial is looking at ways to process more heavy crude at its refineries and could place some of the new production in Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3, the one export pipeline that’s under construction and scheduled to be completed late next year.

Chile's copper production from January to September this year jumped 7.3 percent from a year earlier, boosted by a sharp increase in production at BHP's Escondida copper mine. Chile, the world's top copper exporter, produced 4.25 million tonnes of copper in the first nine months of 2018. Escondida, in northern Chile, produced 950,900 tonnes through September, up 57.8 percent from the same period in 2017, when a strike shut down the mine for more than 40 days.

Global miner BHP Billiton will meet its iron ore commitments to customers despite a supply disruption after it had to derail a runaway ore train in Western Australia, Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie said on Thursday. The miner suspended its rail operations after the incident on Monday that wrecked track and left a locomotive and wagons upturned nearly 120 km (75 miles) south of Australia's iron ore export hub of Port Hedland. Asked whether BHP would invoke force majeure, Mackenzie told media after the company's annual general meeting in South Australia that he did not expect the miner would let down any of its customers.

Global miner BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) (BLT.L) said on Thursday that it intends to meet its contractual supply commitments to its customers after it forcibly derailed a runaway iron ore train in Western Australia. BHP said in a statement that it was engaging with its customers and intends to meet its contractual commitments. The miner said it plans to use stockpile reserves at the export hub of Port Hedland to maintain its port operations, but they are not expected to cover the entire period of disruption.

Mining giant BHP Billiton expects some interruption to its Australian iron ore exports after a nearly 3-km-long train loaded with the commodity was forcibly derailed this week after running away en route to a key shipping hub. One of BHP's customers in China, a steel producer, has, however, not yet received any notice from the miner. "We have a long-term contract with BHP and we haven't received a notification so far," said an official at the mill in southern China who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to media.

Monday’s journey was meant to be a regular rail movement from BHP’s iron-ore mines in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, where temperatures can top 100 degrees Fahrenheit in summer and vast distances separate communities. BHP is taking a more patient approach to the technology, as it worries about congestion on the more than 800-mile rail network that it operates in the Pilbara.

The company was forced Monday to derail the train that traveled 92 kilometers (57 miles) without a driver across the Pilbara, the nation’s major iron ore producing region. BHP’s iron ore mine operations are unaffected and it’s working with authorities to investigate the cause of the incident, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday. Stockpiles at Port Hedland will be used over the coming days to maintain port operations, BHP said in a statement.